The Boerne Independent School District trustees added a fifth item to its list of legislative priorities earlier this month after a pair of retired teachers encouraged them to fight for a rare cost of living adjustment.
During the August board meeting, trustees discussed and approved the list of priorities that target the 88th legislative session scheduled for next year.
“The state is in pretty good shape,” board President Rich Sena said during the meeting, adding the state comptroller’s office is predicting a $27 billion surplus in the 2022-23 budget.
“That’s a lot of money,” he said. “We’re calling on the legislature to reduce the burden of our taxpayers.”
The priorities target financial assistance.
The amendment adding the fifth item – the COLA for retired teachers – was discussed and approved after Jerry Lamping and Richard Herbst, both with the Kendall County Retired Teachers Association, asked the board to add the adjustment to its list. The last time retired Texas teachers received an increase in their pensions was 2013, and it was a 3 percent hike, information from the Texas Retired Teacher Association stated..
“We urge the legislature to support a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for TRS retirees,” the BISD priority item reads. “The last COLA was passed in 2013; since then compounded inflation has totaled 27 percent. This COLA will help both current and future retirees and help retain quality educators.”
Published reports stated that statewide there are about 480,000 retired education employees, and a total of 1.5 million active and retired educators, per Texas Retirement System data. The average monthly TRS check currently is about $2,100.
Information from BISD stated the passage of House Bill 3 in 2019 included a major modernization of Texas’ public school funding, increased the basic allotment to more adequately fund schools and began an ongoing property tax rate reduction process to bring necessary relief to the state’s taxpayers.
“However, rapid appraisal growth threatens to offset the property tax rate reductions seen since 2019,” the information states. “Additionally, compounded inflation of 12 percent since 2019, with no corresponding increases to the funding formulas, limits the ability of school districts to manage rising costs, recruit and retain high-quality teachers and prepare students to meet our state’s future workforce needs.”
The district’s information also stated the COVID-19 pandemic created a learning loss at the end of the 2019-20 school year and continued to impact learning during the 2020-21 year.
“Federal ESSER (Elementary & Secondary School Emergency Relief) funds were used by many districts to implement plans required by House Bill 4545 passed during the 2021 session,” it read. “However, once this money is spent, the requirements of HB 4545 will become an unfunded mandate. Yet, as it should, the need for accountability and high expectations will remain.
“While Texas public schools have seen a sharp reduction in enrollment growth over the past several years, those districts considered fast growth still account for approximately 80 percent of all statewide enrollment growth. Fast-growth districts experience initial start-up costs for new facilities.”
With that said, the trustees adopted the retired teachers’ COLA priority as well as the four others.
The other four BISD legislative priorities are:
• The district advocates the use of a significant portion of the state’s expected surplus to buy down the Maintenance and Operations tax rate.
“Any M&O reduction should be sustainable,” the priority states. “In addition to offsetting the significant property appraisal increases, property tax compression will help reduce recapture, which now exceeds $3 billion/year. Recapture amounts to a significant ‘Robin Hood’ tax with no benefit to the local school district.”
• The district encourages the legislature to increase the basic allotment to assist in the recruitment and retention of high-quality educators, as well as help districts deal with rising costs due to inflation.
• The district urges the legislature to fully fund the New Facilities Instruction Allotment, which was designed to fund $1,000 per student at any newly opened campus.
• The district strongly supports accountability and the high expectations needed to prepare its students to be productive citizens and help maintain the attractiveness and growth of our state.
“Whether it be a component of the increase in the Basic Allotment or a specific formula allocation, we encourage the state to fund the mandates listed in HB 4545,” the district stated.
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